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Coming to Wikipedia: 'Love' button


It could be the closest that open-source Wikipedia could come to Facebook's "Like" button: a "Love" button. But rather than just make the recipient feel good, the "WikiLove" button's main aim is to make volunteer editors feel appreciated and motivate them to edit more. "The act of expressing appreciation for other users ... is a largely manual effort. Whether it’s welcoming new users, inviting users to participate in specific topics or discussions, recognizing effort using barnstars and trophies, or just sending a whimsical note, expressing appreciation is not an activity that is facilitated by the software — in spite of its known importance for people’s likelihood to want to edit," Wikimedia Foundation senior product manager Howie Fung and foundation deputy director Erik Moeller said in a blog post. Wikipedia, an open-source encyclopedia, depends greatly on volunteer editors, many of whom may get discouraged by more experienced editors' looking down on them, they said. Fung and Moeller said the initial plan is to enable WikiLove on the English Wikipedia on June 29, although users will be able to disable the WikiLove feature. WikiLove is a simple experiment in appreciation where one can send "barnstars or whimsical messages of appreciation to other users." The tool, first developed by Wikimedia Foundation developer Ryan Kaldari, aims to show appreciation for new users, from welcoming them to inviting them to join discussions. In explaining the feature, Fung and Moeller cited a 2011 survey of Wikipedia editors showing "being looked down on by more experienced editors" tends to discourage users to edit less frequently. On the other hand, they said the survey also showed that "having others compliment you on your edits/articles" is the most likely to cause people to say they will edit more frequently. Tool measurements The tool has built-in tables that will help administrators measure how frequently WikiLove is used, and allow editors to understand whether its usage actually affects (new) editor activity. "We’re not presupposing that we know how appreciation can best be expressed in the many different languages and cultures that make up the Wikimedia community. The selection of barnstars and other forms of appreciation that we’re starting with is just that — a selection," they said. Before the June 29 rollout, the WikiLove extension is present only on the prototype site, and accessible to logged-in users. Users who want to test the feature may create a test account. A separate article on tech site Mashable said Barnstars, Beer and Kittens are the primary WikiLove gifts a user can send, but users also have the option to create their own. "Once a user sends someone a little WikiLove, an update appears on his or her user talk page, where messages and photos of 'A beer for you!' or 'A kitten for you!' could potentially flood it," it said. — RSJ, GMA News

Tags: wikipedia
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